141 7.1 Introduction

The establishment of a complete ban on anti-personnel mines by no means marked the end of the Ottawa process. At the Signing Ceremony in December 1997 it was widely recognised that the real challenge of Ottawa was implicit in implementing its stipulations. Thus, already in the preliminary operations of the 1997 Conference the first steps were taken by Canada and other members of the Ottawa core group to draw up an agenda for the implementation of the convention. At the top of the agenda were the issues of universalisation of the convention, high level attendance at key meetings, and compliance with the convention’s stipulations. In addition, several other items arising directly from the humanitarian responsibilities of the convention were put on the agenda. These responsibilities concerned aspects of mine action: mine clearance, victim assistance, socio-economic reintegration, mine awareness or mine risk education, and stockpile destruction.

This chapter deals with the Dutch efforts with regard to the effective implementation of the Ottawa Convention from December 1997 until December 2006. The Netherlands did not constantly intervene in the international decision-making on all of these issues, due to the priorities it defined in its policy on funding mine action (see chapter 3). So, this chapter does not include the issues of victim assistance, socio-economic integration and mine awareness or mine risk education. In chapter 2 it was explained that at the first Meeting of States Parties in Maputo the States Parties agreed on an Intersessional

Work Programme of informal open- ended meetings of Standing Committees whose

primary function is to ensure in-depth consideration of relevant questions for improving mine action and to support the effective functioning of the convention. Table 7.2 presents the various issues on the Ottawa agenda, plus the Standing Committees in which these issues are discussed and the Dutch policy priorities in the Ottawa Convention.

7.2 Promoting universalisation

General course of events

In December 1997 the States Parties made the pursuit of universal adherence to the convention a core task of cooperation.252 _{The underlying notion was that the only}

guarantee of a world free of anti-personnel mines would be the achievement of universal adherence to the Ottawa Convention, and the implementation of its comprehensive ban. In this respect the convention has made tremendous progress. Since it came into force in March 1999 the number of States Parties to the Ottawa Convention has increased to 152 countries. At the end of December 2006, the list of

252 In the preamble to the Ottawa Convention States Parties emphasise the desirability of attracting the adherence of all States and the determination to work strenuously towards the promotion of its universalisa- tion in all relevant forums.

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countries that had not acceded to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty (see table 7.1) had shrunk to only forty countries.253 _{These included states which according to the ICBL have used}

anti-personnel mines, as well as states that continue to produce anti-personnel mines, retain the capacity to produce anti-personnel mines, and/or hold vast stockpiles of anti-personnel mines.

Table 7.1 List of states not parties to the Ottawa Convention

1) Armenia 2) Azerbaijan 3) Bahrain 4) Burma/ Myanmar 5) China 6) Cuba 7) Egypt 8) Finland 9) Georgia 10) India 11) Iran 12) Iraq 13) Israel 14) Kazakhstan 15) Korea, North 16) Korea, South 17) Kuwait 18) Kyrgyzstan 19) Lao PDR 20) Lebanon 21) Libya 22) Micronesia 23) Mongolia 24) Morocco 25) Nepal 26) Oman 27) Pakistan 28) Palau 29) Russian Federation 30) Saudi Arabia 31) Singapore 32) Somalia 33) Sri Lanka 34) Syria 35) Tonga 36) Tuvalu 37) United Arab Em. 38) United States 39) Uzbekistan 40) Vietnam Source: ICBL website, 27-2-2007

At the First Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty (the Nairobi Summit 2004), the States Parties recommitted themselves to take action on universalisation. Through the

Nairobi Action Plan they pledged to persevere until the convention has been universally

applied and its aims are fully achieved. The plan spells out concrete actions to guide the efforts of the States Parties on the subject in the period 2005-2009. Action point 8 indicates that the States Parties will ‘seize every appropriate opportunity to promote adherence to the Ottawa Convention in bilateral contacts, military-to-military dialogue, peace processes, national parliaments, and the media, including by encouraging states not parties to abide by its provisions pending their adherence to the Convention’.254

Table 7.2 Dutch policies on universalisation December 1997 – December 2006

Objectives The Netherlands strives to achieve universal adherence to the convention

by promoting the accession of new countries (in particular, important mine producers and users such as China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and the US, which have not signed the Mine Ban Treaty) for security reasons.

Results The Netherlands has contributed directly and indirectly to the accession of

22 states to the Ottawa Convention:

20 of the 43 countries that were object of Dutch bilateral and multilateral interventions eventually became States Parties, 21 countries did not accede despite the intervention, and the interventions in the two remaining (and acceding) two countries were superfluous.

61 countries were the object of EU démarches. Of these countries, 14 that were not an object of direct Dutch universalisation initiatives acceded.

253 Two countries – the Marshall Islands and Poland – have signed but not ratified. 254 Nairobi action plan 2005-2009, I. Universalising the Convention.

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Interventions The Netherlands has used various instruments to promote the universalisa-

tion of the treaty:

Since 1998 it has approached 43 states not parties to the convention (through démarches and informal consultations) within the framework of the Universalisation Contact Group. Through concerted EU effort it appealed to 61 countries to ratify or accede to the convention.

Since 1997 it has sponsored UN resolutions in which states are invited to sign, ratify or accede to the treaty.

Together with other member states of the Human Security Network it made an urgent appeal to states not parties to ratify or accede to the Ottawa Convention prior to the Nairobi Summit 2004.

Impediments Dutch efforts on universalisation in the Ottawa Convention were initially

impeded by the slow ratification of the convention in the Netherlands. Later on, the dialectics of progress increasingly impeded the universalisation effort, leaving the UCG with a list of forty of the most recalcitrant countries.

Objectives

Once the Ottawa Convention had been established in December 1997, the Netherlands redefined its overall policy objective into the universalisation and effective

implementation of the convention. To this end, the government would not only strive to achieve swift ratification of the convention by the Netherlands, but also continue to call on other countries to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty. In November 1998 the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out before Parliament that the Netherlands would strive for universalisation of the Ottawa Convention in the years to come, both bilaterally and in cooperation with other countries.255 _{In March 1999 he further}

indicated that a larger part of the Dutch efforts should be aimed at persuading important countries that had not signed the Ottawa Convention for security reasons (including important mine producers and users like China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and the US).256

Over the years, the objective of universalisation has remained high on the Dutch agenda. In the explanatory Note on the Budget for 2003 the government re-emphasised that it would make efforts to promote the accession of new countries to the convention.257

The objective was repeatedly stressed in the instructions to the Dutch delegations at the annual Meetings of States Parties.258 _{Furthermore it was stressed by the Secretary-}

General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who spoke on behalf of the European Union at the Nairobi Summit 2004, and said that promoting and achieving universal

255 Parliamentary proceedings, 12 November 1998, p. 1572. 256 Parliamentary proceedings, 23 March 1999, pp. 1051-1052. 257 TK, 28600, V, nr.2:65.

258 See for example the instructions to the Dutch delegation to the annual meetings of States Parties in Maputo 2001 (file 627096, 15 January 1999), Managua 2001 (file 743164, 24 August 2001) and Bangkok 2003 (file 811535, 9 September 2003).

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acceptance of the Ottawa Convention remained a priority, since states which were not parties to the convention still retained enormous stocks of anti-personnel mines.259

Results

By means of the informal consultations at diplomatic level, informal meetings, co-sponsoring and/or co-organising of seminars, bilateral démarches or démarches jointly with one or several other States Parties, the Netherlands has contributed directly to the overall objective of universalisation of the Ottawa Convention. Since 1998 it has intervened in 43 countries to promote ratification or accession to the Ottawa Convention. In some of these countries the Netherlands has intervened more than once. Of the 43 cases, 20 countries eventually became States Parties to the Ottawa Convention, while 21 countries have not acceded. The Dutch interventions in 1999 in the remaining two countries were superfluous: during bilateral démarches in Niger and Slovakia in 1999 it appeared that these countries had already ratified the convention.

As part of EU initiatives the Netherlands has approached 61 countries to ratify or accede to the Ottawa Convention. In 26 of these cases, EU démarches were conducted in countries that were also object of direct Netherlands interventions; the remaining 35 countries were not an object of direct Netherlands universalisation initiatives. Of this latter group of 35 countries, a further 14 countries acceded to the Ottawa Convention. Table 7.5 presents the EU interventions per year, in combination with the annual number of ratifications/accessions of the countries approached.

Interventions

Dutch efforts to promote the accession of as many countries as possible to the Ottawa Convention has included bilateral or multilateral informal contacts, démarches, joint EU action and support of resolutions and declarations.260 _{In addition, on two occasions}

the Netherlands has participated in the organisation of seminars to further the objective of universalisation.

First and foremost, the Netherlands has made use of bilateral contacts (bilateral démarches and informal consultations) and multilateral démarches to achieve the objective of universalisation. It has been particularly active in the Canadian-led Universalisation Contact Group (UCG), which was formed in 1999 and formally established during the Second Meeting of States Parties in 2001 in order to coordinate universalisation efforts within the framework of the Ottawa Convention.261 _Its

members meet three times a year to agree on strategy, set priorities and plan action on

259 Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, Statement by Frank Majoor, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on behalf of the European Union, 2 December 2004. 260 Parliamentary proceedings, 2 February 1999, pp. 639-642 and 10 February 1999, pp. 3331-3341. 261 Landmine Monitor, 2001 and Wareham, 2006:100. The Universalisation Contact Group is an informal

information-sharing and strategy group consisting of more than twenty pro-ban governments, the ICRC, UNICEF and the ICBL (Landmine Monitor, 2002).

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